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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611725">A Court of  Secrets</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GAMarigold/pseuds/GAMarigold'>GAMarigold</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing Relationship, F/M, Secret Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:48:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,216</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GAMarigold/pseuds/GAMarigold</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A budding relationship... a brewing war... secrets, lies, cover-ups, and betrayals. Set 75 years after the events of ACoWaR, meet Feyre and Rhysand's children, Rhaesanndra and Rhyanon, as they navigate tumultuous times in Prythian after a long period of peace. The story is made more complicated by secret relationships.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassian (ACoTaR) &amp; Original Character(s), Feyre Archeron/Rhysand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rhae stamped the snow off her boots outside the door of the three-story building while gazing upwards at the long line of windows facing the Sidra. She opened the door and was greeted by a Fae female that pointed her in the direction of the stairs. She trudged up them, half dreading the conversation she needed to have and half going insane from holding her emotions in for so long.</p>
<p>               Her situation was supremely hazardous. She and Cassian were teetering on a high peak. One moment, they’re on solid ground comfortable in each other’s embrace, and the next they’re inches away from hurtling thousands of feet to a certain catastrophe. One wrong move, a single miscalculation, could send them hurtling to a point of no return. It wasn’t a situation either of them wanted to be in, but the freefall was feeling more inevitable each day.</p>
<p>               They both were suffering keeping their relationship, if it the tumultuous shitstorm they were in could be called that, a secret. However, the suffering of secrecy was far more preferable for the both of them than the disaster that would befall them both if her parents found out. Neither she nor Cassian really wanted to hide it but at this point there was no other option.</p>
<p>               There was especially no option when neither of them knew how to explain the rocky relationship between them. The up, down, push, pull, back, and forth was hard enough for them to navigate, let alone explain to the most important people in their lives. Her aunt was the only choice. The only option she had to express her feelings to someone other than Cassian and try to figure out what they should do.</p>
<p>               When he found out she had come and told the truth he would be livid. That absolute truth made Rhae falter on the staircase up to the third floor. She began rethinking her decision to come. After last night her and Cassian were already closer to the edge of the peak than they had ever been before. She came to a stop a few steps away from the door she was seeking as her mind flashed back to the night before.   </p>
<p>               “Rhae,” Cassian murmured into her hair. She could feel the deep hum of his voice in the hand that was cradled against his chest. It seemed these days that 90% of his spoken words to her were closer to a growl than the soothing hum that left him now. She tucked her face farther into his neck, unwilling to accept what they both knew was coming next.</p>
<p>               The first rays of sunlight filtered through the ship cabin’s window, in the next hour they would be docked at Velaris and ushered their separate ways. She had to be gone, back to her room and dressed before her mother came to fetch her.</p>
<p>               She didn’t want to leave though. She knew as soon as his next words left his mouth, as soon as she unwrapped herself from his embrace and snuck out the door to her cabin, that this moment would be over. It would be over, and she didn’t know if he would be willing to give her another night like the one they shared before. She had practically begged him, or rather told him to stop holding back, just for that night. She had known that what they would share would be as explosive and so overwhelmingly <em>right</em> as it was, and she hoped that would convince him to go further. She knew her body was as addictive to him as his was to her, but she didn’t know if that <em>need</em>, the overwhelming desire they both had for one another would be enough for him to break his self-imposed code again.</p>
<p>               She shuddered slightly in his arms, remembering how his hands had felt against her skin. For such an imposing and large warrior, he was surprisingly gentle with her. She had imagined him to be in bed much as he was to her in training or in the real word; rough and dominate. He was the exact opposite, almost treating her as if he could break her with one wrong move. He knew just as well as she did that she was as strong and nearly unbreakable as he, but in the time they had shared in this bed he seemed to have forgotten.</p>
<p>               “Rhae,” he said again, this time the hum turning harder. He leaned his head back from hers and shifted so her face was out of his neck and they were facing each other. “It’s time.”</p>
<p>               She lifted a hand up to push a lock of hair out of his hazel eyes that tracked her every move as if they were in the ring or out in the field rather than laying in a plush bed on her father and mother’s outrageous ship. As she pulled her hand away from his face, he caught it and placed a kiss on her palm. She couldn’t help the flutter of her eyes, heart, and lower belly as he did so. She sucked in a sharp breath, remembering yet again, all the places his lips had traveled mere hours ago.</p>
<p>She knew the sweet part of him was gone as his lips spread into a cocky grin against her palm. He knew exactly what that small kiss had done to her and what she was remembering. She didn’t think she would ever forget the first time she felt his lips against her collarbone, her navel, and inner thighs. Her mood soured slightly as she also remembered how he had stopped at her thighs and rolled, almost like a feline, back up to her mouth. He had captured her lips right as they formed an exasperated sigh. He had smiled then too and told her he had not promised her that.</p>
<p>Really, he hadn’t verbally promised her anything. She really thought he was going to turn her down, hold true to the piece inside of him that screamed not to go further, as she was almost frantically asking him to put aside his loyalty to her parents for one night. They hadn’t hammered out details, the particulars of what he would and wouldn’t do with her, before she saw the slightest break in his face and slight nod of his acceptance, and that had been all she needed to kiss him hungrily. That kiss led to his lips all over her body except for the one place between her thighs he wouldn’t go with his lips but somehow convinced himself it wouldn’t be so bad explore with his hands. <em>Thankfully</em>, she thought, shuddering much smaller than the shudders that had wracked her body the night before at the attention of those very hands in that very place.</p>
<p>He had changed then, knowing as he seemed to always know, what she was thinking about. His face hardened and he dropped her hand as he fluidly stood up. His wings were out of sight, but every other inch of his toned and tattooed body was in front of her for only moments before he tugged on a shirt and pants. He stalked to a chair in the corner and collapsed in it, staring at her intently. She took the very obvious que from him and heaved her lithe frame from the bed as well. For her own experiment she stretched her arms above her head, feeling the muscles in her abdomen and back tighten and her breasts rise up slightly. To her annoyance he only looked for a moment before wrenching his eyes away from her naked body to the window that more sunlight was filtering through now. She quickly pulled on the dress she had worn the night before, having to tie one of the shoulder straps together at the points it had been ripped from her body.</p>
<p>After she was dressed and had made her dark as night hair look somewhat presentable, she returned the stare he had leveled on her again. “You do know that you don’t have to look away now,” she said, the annoyance seeping into her voice.</p>
<p>Cassian didn’t answer, he just stared at her. She could see all the thoughts running through his head. She knew that he probably felt like he had betrayed the trust her parents had placed in him after the events that unfolded between the sheets with her and he last night.  He steepled his hands in front of his face, reminding her of her father and her heart sank even lower. She felt her own twinge of not exactly betrayal but knowing that her father would be disappointed in her when he found out. Which she knew was inevitable. A being as powerful as her father did not have things go unbeknownst to him for long. Her relationship with Cassian was a ticking time bomb.</p>
<p>“You also know that we have to come clean at some point,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“No,” he said with as much conviction as she had ever heard from him.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she returned just as quickly, “we can’t hide this forever.”</p>
<p>He grimaced slightly before locking his jaw defiantly, “We won’t be hiding anything because nothing like this, or further than this, will happen ever again.”</p>
<p>She snorted and stalked forward, grabbing his chin quicker than he could react. She tilted his face up at her and leaned down towards him. He looked back at her evenly, and they stayed locked like that for what felt like hours but could’ve only been a minute or two, before she dropped her hand from his face with a slight snarl. She had expected him to break, had wanted him so badly to give in to the urge to kiss her she knew he was fighting.</p>
<p>“Are you serious, Cassian?” she asked, annoyance gone and venom lacing her words now.</p>
<p>“You’re so much like her,” he said, a slight quirk of one corner of his mouth following the comment he knew would inflame her further.</p>
<p>“<em>Don’t </em>bring her up to me one more time,” she hissed.</p>
<p>He rolled his eyes, “Dramatics and fire. It must be in your blood.”</p>
<p>“So, we’re back to this? You’re not going to acknowledge any part of last night? Or where it leaves us?”</p>
<p>“You asked me for <em>one </em>night. You got it. I gave you more than I should have, and now… Yes. Yes, we go back to how it was. We forget it ever happened. We go back to wanting to kill each other in the ring,” he answered with the authority and dominance she had come to expect from him.</p>
<p>“I’m back to wanting to kill you <em>now</em>,” she said, his earlier jab about her being like someone else forgotten entirely. Let him compare them. Let him know she won’t back down on account of his size, overbearing personality, or rank.</p>
<p>“That’s fine with me,” he said beginning to open the wardrobe and pull his Illyrian leathers out, “You’ll fight better that way too.”</p>
<p>His nonchalance was what pushed her past the breaking point that his previous comments of forgetting and never reliving the night before had pushed her so dangerously close to. The ship rocked slightly harder in the water as her anger pulsed around her. He looked up at her, equal parts awe and annoyance in his gaze.</p>
<p>“Control yourself,” he bit out. “No one can know. If one person knows, even one Rhae, we’re finished. You and I both know they wouldn’t take kindly to what we’ve done. I don’t know whose reaction would be worse.”</p>
<p>“Why are you so caught up on them? We can explain. They will understand, they always say their love wasn’t easy but was worth it in the end.”</p>
<p>He shook his head, “That was different, and it was still unbearably hard for the both of them. Why hurt them with something that won’t last?”</p>
<p>She reacted as if she had been slapped in the face. “What did you just say?”</p>
<p>“Don’t Rhae. I am 590 years older than you and leaving that out of it, we fight just like this all the time.”</p>
<p>“We fight like this because you’re so worried about being a perfect little general and mourning someone who died 70 years ago that you can’t see what’s right in front of you!” she exclaimed.   </p>
<p>“And what would that be?” he said harshly, losing patience with the argument.</p>
<p>“Love. Don’t deny it Cassian,” she pleaded, softening her voice, hoping that this time it would reach him.</p>
<p>“It’s not that. It’s simple attraction. We are both powerful and lonely, that’s not a good foundation for a relationship. Last night happened, and it was enjoyable Rhae I won’t lie to you, but it was a mistake, and it can’t happen again. You know that” at this point some of the harshness had simmered out and been replaced with pain.</p>
<p>She knew that was what he was telling himself before he even said it. She knew that was what he believed because as much as he didn’t want to admit it, she was right. He had spent the last 70 years trying to make up for something that wasn’t his fault. She knew he saw this, what they had, as the ultimate betrayal and couldn’t bring himself to see that neither situation was a betrayal at all. It hurt her to hear those words, but it hurt her more because beneath the armor he had constructed around himself she knew he did love her. Even if he wouldn't verbally admit it.</p>
<p>But she also he knew nothing she said at this point would matter, she had done everything. She had tried reasoning, she had tried logically convincing, she had tried being in his bed and showing him their physical chemistry could not be denied but none of it was enough. She didn’t say anything else, just turned and started forming what little of a plan she could in her head.</p>
<p>Rhae snapped back to reality as the door in front of her opened revealing a small High Fae with chin length black hair standing in the doorway. The female smiled widely, happiness evident in her silver eyes.</p>
<p>“Aunt Amren, I… I need to talk to you,” she bit out awkwardly.</p>
<p>Amren smiled wider, “I’ve been waiting Rhaesanndra. I suppose this is about the tangled mess you find yourself and that bothersome male in?”</p>
<p>Rhae smiled at her aunt’s use of her full name. Nobody really called her that anymore besides Amren and her parents. Her mother had not been a fan of her nickname at first. She had complained that Rhaessandra’s full name was a beautiful feminization of her father’s. She nodded her head at Amren and stepped into her apartment after her.</p>
<p>Amren noted her response silently, “Well I think we have a lot to discuss. It won’t be easy explaining this,” she pressed her lips together primly before settling on, “-situation, to the High Lord and Lady of the Night Court now will it?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rhyanon's POV: He learns of a dinner with an unusual guest</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is Rhae's brother's introduction! I'm still trying to hammer down their individual voices, so I hope Rhyan's "tone" is different from Rhae's. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rhyan folded his wings delicately across his back before they disappeared altogether. His father told him while teaching him how to veil his wings that it didn’t really matter how they were arranged, but regardless he tried to keep them neatly arranged instead of splayed out constantly. Folding them had become a habit and Rhyan thought it was probably on account of his need for everything to be neat and in order. He didn’t have to veil them at all, but it was easier to maneuver without them sometimes.  </p><p>               Rhyan’s sore muscles in his back protested as he bent over to remove his fighting boots. He then pulled off his Illyrian leathers and placed them gingerly in the laundry receptacle Cerridwen had placed by his dresser before padding over to the bath in the corner of his room. He stood before it and took a deep breath, a few moments later, steam dissipated throughout the room from the hot water that had appeared.</p><p>               Being as gentle with himself as he could be, he lowered his long body into the bath. Rhyan relaxed and let the warm water work its magic on his overused muscles that had gone through hell in training today. Azriel was an even more unforgiving instructor than his father. He knew they pushed him so hard because they wanted him to be the best he could be, but nowadays it was becoming more and more exhausting to be pushed to his breaking point every day.</p><p>               He started his mornings with ungodly long flights mapped out by his father. Rhysand explained the approach as two-fold, Rhyan would learn to read maps and find geographical markers so he could safely travel alone and would also build flying stamina. After his flights, he met with Amren who instructed him in the history of Prythian for a few hours before lunch. After lunch, he flew to the House of Wind to receive combat training from Azriel, Rhys, or sometimes other members of the Night Court depending on the Inner Circle’s dealings that day. In the afternoons he had free time before dinner, and after dinner, usually whenever his father wasn’t busy, he honed his powers.</p><p>               Recently, as his training had become more intense, he had been spending his free afternoons in the bath and poring over texts given to him by Amren. Of all his instructors she was the most understanding, which apparently confounded his mother and father. They always talked of how she had changed since the war, but he had never known his aunt to be any different than she was. She had a soft spot for he and his sister, and both of them knew she could be relied upon for anything.</p><p>               Aunt Mor was something entirely different. Where Amren was serious and almost a second mother, Morrigan was more concerned with providing fun and merriment. Mor used to switch out he and his sister’s glasses with ones full to the brim with wine at dinner or spirited them away from their lessons for shopping trips and lunch dates in Velaris. His aunts complemented each other perfectly and he knew his parents were thankful for their interest and help in raising he and Rhae.</p><p>               Uncles were a bit of a different story. Amren and Mor had been cornerstones in Rhyan and his sister’s lives since they were born. Azriel had been around of course in his younger days, but he didn’t really make a connection with Rhyan until he was 7. Apparently babies were not one of Azriel's favorite things, because he kept his distance from his little sister when she was born until she was 5. His relationship with Rhyan had softened Azriel, and he was now extremely involved with both of them. Though most of his aunts and uncles were not related to him by blood, they might as well have been by how close they all were.   </p><p>               He wondered where his sister was today. Their schedules were flipped, so he knew she would be practicing her winnowing now. He and his sister were almost total opposites, despite how similar they looked. They both had inky black hair they kept about the same length at the middle of their backs. Their skin tones were slightly different, as his sister had taken a darker complexion similar to his father’s whereas he was paler like his mother. Their eyes were almost the exact same shade of deep violet blue. They were both tall, Rhyan actually had an inch or two on his father despite appearing less muscular. Though they were both strong, they appeared more lean and almost willowy. He and his sister's bodies were more suited to speed and agility rather than pure strength.  </p><p>               Their differences in personality were stark. Rhae would talk to anyone, even as a small child, whereas Rhyan had to be convinced to emerge from behind his mother’s skirts. He was always the softer of the two, but what he lacked in charisma he gained tenfold in intellect. Not to say his sister wasn’t smart, but answers and logic came to him much quicker than Rhae. He thought that was why Amren had such a soft spot for him. He had told her many times his favorite parts of the day were learning with her.</p><p>               Rhyan and his sister were similar in looks and different in personality, but their command of their powers was less easy to define. They were always compared by the Night Court regardless of their parents’ almost refusal to do so. The court had differing opinions on the siblings’ powers. Some said Rhae was the more powerful of the two by a long shot, but others claimed that Rhyan’s status of the first born had clearly made him more powerful. The combination of his mother and father’s powers left the siblings with rather unique skillsets that were still being explored.</p><p>               His father had started their training slowly when they turned 17. Their power came naturally, but controlling it was an altogether different matter. Control came easier to Rhyan, but because of that his powers in some ways seemed less than Rhae’s. However, his sister’s control was satisfactory at best. This led to outbursts and moments of unchecked power that sometimes made her look to be the more powerful of the two. Neither of them cared, but the court certainly did.</p><p>               A slight knock startled him out of his thoughts. “A moment,” he called, unfolding his tall body from the bath. He toweled off and put on a dark navy tunic and pant set shot through with silver threads in a style similar to what his father always wore. He twisted his damp hair into a messy knot at the back of his head before calling out to his visitor to come in.</p><p>               His mother, High Lady of the Night Court, pushed into his room wearing a black dress and her favorite crown. She smiled broadly at him before walking to him and giving him a hug. She then picked a small piece of lint off his shoulder, which she had to raise up on her toes to see at all, before smiling at him again.</p><p>               He returned her smile and was thankful again for the love his parents had shown the both of them. Whatever had happened in his parents’ past as far as their childhoods, which was still mostly unknown to him, had made them very particular about expressing their love to their children. His parents had always been caring and kind, but they taught lessons when needed and made rules clear. He knew his upbringing was better than most, and he was thankful for the both of them.</p><p>               “Cancel your plans for the rest of the day, we’re having dinner at the House of Wind,” Feyre said in a rush, almost seeming like she was forcing herself to try to sound excited.</p><p>               “Are we?” he asked arching his brow, they only ate there on semi-formal occasions that landed in the middle of court dinners and family dinners at the Estate. The House of Wind was usually reserved for small get togethers with emissaries or visitors from other courts. He hadn’t been informed of any visitors coming for the next month or so.</p><p>               “Indeed, we are,” his mother said, slipping into her own thoughts.</p><p>               Rhyan could see she was thinking intensely, or possibly remembering, “Who is joining us?” he asked.</p><p>               Feyre snapped out of her thoughts and started rattling off a list of names, “Mor, Amren, Azriel, Varian, Lucien, Elain and Cassian.”</p><p>               Rhyan widened his eyes, “Cassian? You’re acting like that is not substantial information.”</p><p>               Feyre grasped her hands in front of her and took a deep breath while nodding. He could sense the anxiety she was trying to conceal. Cassian’s arrival had to have been a surprise, there is no chance something more formal wouldn’t have been arranged if his mother had known he was visiting. Cassian was the general commander of the Night Court’s armies, and his role had him out of Velaris 99% of the time. The last time Rhyan had seen him was 10 years ago when his father had brought him to an Illyrian war camp high in the mountains. He had only spoke a few words to Cassian before being ushered off by some of the young Illyrians trying to gain fame by fighting against the High Lord’s son. He thought back to his earlier musings about his uncles, though Cassian could hardly be called one.</p><p>               Rhyan knew it wasn’t really his fault, Cassian’s rank had him busy the majority of the year. However, he thought it was strange that Uncle Az, who was just as involved in the Night Court’s ruling, had been a constant in Velaris since he was born. He had only met Cassian a handful of times, but this would be his sister’s first time actually meeting him old enough to remember it. Cassian hadn’t been to Velaris in 20 years, the last time he was here Rhae had only been nearly a year old. He again thought it was odd that his arrival was so abrupt.  </p><p>               “What brings him to Velaris?” Rhyan asked curiously.</p><p>His mother looked at him strangely, “I haven’t the slightest clue.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>These events happen 75 years after the events of ACOWAR. Rhae (21) was born 54 years after the war of Hybern ends. Her older brother, Rhyanon(26) was born 5 years before her. </p>
<p>This is just something I was thinking about that I have a lot of ideas for, not 100% where it'll go. I have about three chapters written already, but wanted to gauge interest first. Thanks :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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